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Poppys Pond – Remembering Amy Alcott and Dinah Shore (Video)

By Elizabeth Bethel

RANCHO MIRAGE, CA - APRIL 06: Lexi Thompson of the USA jumps with her caddie and family into Poppy's Pond after her three shot win during the final round of the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club on April 6, 2014 in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
RANCHO MIRAGE, CA - APRIL 06: Lexi Thompson of the USA jumps with her caddie and family into Poppy's Pond after her three shot win during the final round of the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club on April 6, 2014 in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images) /
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Poppys Pond is waiting for this year’s winner’s leap. Here’s how it all started –

The annual leap into Poppys Pond, which is coming up this Sunday, is one of the iconic moments in women’s golf. Literally and figuratively, it’s a Dinah Shore moment.

It’s exuberant.  It’s a team thing. It engages family groups. It takes style and a certain amount of guts to carry it off. It’s just plain fun!

Hall of Famer and three-time ANA Inspiration champion Amy Alcott started it all in 1988 when the event was the Nabisco Dinah Shore.

Alcott recalled that Sunday afternoon on the 72nd hole at Rancho Mirage for the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Dwyre:

"“I didn’t know what I was starting. . . It was totally unplanned . . . I looked at my caddie, Bill Kurre, and said, ‘Bill, we’re going in the water.’  He knew me, knew how I loved a show, so he was ready. I grabbed his hand and in we went.”"

That was the first time. It got captured by the camera and became a SportsCenter moment and Dinah Shore, who loved women’s golf, loved that Poppys Pond leap.

The next two Champions, Juli Inkster and Betsey King, weren’t so enthusiastic about the prospect of leaping into the slimy green-side pond. They declined. Dinah Shore wanted it to happen again, and again, and again.

In 1991 Alcott approached the 72 hole with a huge lead and knew she was going into the pond again. And she also knew that Dinah Shore was going in with her.

"“I could see Dinah, at the back of the green and she was wearing black pants. She never wore black pants, always white. As I got closer, she kept edging forward. She said to me, ‘Don’t go in without me.’“"

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And so they leapt into Poppys Pond together, the young champion and the 75-year old godmother of the LPGA’s first major championship. The rest is history.

Some have entered with cannonball splashes – Annika Sorenstam. Others have dragged their entire families in with them – Lorena Ochoa. Dottie Pepper got a bad ear infection from Poppy’s Pond and Stacy Lewis’s mother hurt her leg. It’s not a leap for the faint of heart!

Next: ANA Inspiration Top 10 Player Power Rankings

Amy Alcott will be in the field this year and there’s no question at all: if she wins, she’s going to take another leap.

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